Mike Bockus' Waste of Web Space

We take Halloween very seriously around here. For previous Halloweens, Charlene had tried to make “The Great Pumpkin” a thing. What is “The Great Pumpkin” (TGP) you ask? He is a pumpkin that comes on the night of Halloween, takes all of your candy, and leaves a toy in it’s place. This worked for one year before the boys realized it was a total screw job. Eli decided to take matters into his own hands and left this note:

Just in case you’re struggling to read the note, it says “Please don’t let the Great Pumpkin get our candy”. They were afraid that a pumpkin may not be able to read, so they drew the picture as well to make sure that the pumpkin knew he was not to grab their full happy buckets.

The boys are at the age where it doesn’t matter that it’s near freezing outside, we will not stop until the bucket is full. They are also awesome at sharing, so I know that I’m getting a decent cut of that sweet sweet candy. I had to be motivated, because my costume of choice this year was not ideal for the weather. Mira was going as an aerobics instructor, so I decided I better be Richard Simmons so we could make a good team.

Not only did I think it would be a good idea to go trick or treating in this costume, but I also entered the first annual Cox costume contest. I was very happy to win the Funniest Costume category, but I’m afraid my coworkers will never get this image of me out of their head.

Here’s the whole crew ready to get our trick or treating started. I think Mira and Charlene made it about 200 yards before deciding it was too cold and heading back to the house. The boys stayed out until the buckets were full and everyone was numb.

Last year the candy lasted for weeks and they were constantly harassing me about it, so this year I did what any smart parent would do and told them they could have as much candy as they wanted on the Saturday after Halloween. They did make a huge dent in the candy, but we paid the ultimate price of dealing with two crazy children who felt like garbage. Pretty sure they passed out or went into a diabetic coma that evening. I’m just glad nobody had to clean up rainbow puke.

We celebrated Eli turning 5 this last weekend. He had his party at Bouncin Craze that is a magical place for children. For adults it’s a feet smelling warehouse room filled with bounce houses. Good times were had running around being crazy with all his friends!

We were almost on health watch due to the lack of motivation to sit up. Mira reminds me of a baby Beau. A child that has no motivation to use any of their muscles. She’ll probably wait until 16 months to start walking just like her older brother.

She has this sitting up thing down though!

Are you supposed to play the keyboard with your face, or is this what a baby looks like when they’ve given up?

I got a wonderful call last Friday night from my Uncle Bruce. He was letting me know that his OU/Tenn tickets were up for grabs if I wanted them. I think I told him “Yes!” before he even had a chance to finish asking me. Then Bruce reminded me that I should probably clear things with the wife. Charlene could see the excitement on my face and gave me the thumbs up.

A couple seasons ago I took Beau to an OU game. His favorite part was the cotton candy and the fireworks. Eli has been reminding me that he has never had the opportunity go to an OU game for fireworks and cotton candy with his Dad. His time had finally come.

We got to Norman in time to hit the fan fest and swing by the RUF/NEKS 99th anniversary tailgate. I think fan fest was the highlight for Eli. He got to throw a bunch of footballs and bean bags. This was the first time I’ve made it to fan fest, and it was pretty sweet. They were handing out all kinds of swag. Eli won some sweet sun glasses for his bean bag tossing skills.

Once we finally made it in the stadium, Eli was ready for some cotton candy. He had been waiting at least two years for that sweet sweet cotton candy. Turns out they don’t sell cotton candy anymore, so instead we just bought fruit snacks, M&Ms, corn dogs, chili cheese fries, and popcorn. I’m still recovering from the 10,000 calories that were consumed that night. He was pretty sure a trip to the concession stand was needed in each quarter.

What’s with the “OU Beats Bockattack” title? A few days ago I was attempting to explain fantasy football to my children. I was failing miserably, but they did remember that my team name was “Bockattack”. Eli was convinced that we were going to a game where the Oklahoma Sooners would play the Tennessee Bockattacks. I tried to correct him, but he thought I was talking crazy. Then it just got to the point where it was hilarious. Every time OU scored, Eli would yell “OU has 20 points and the Bockattacks only have 7!” He was getting some weird looks from the people sitting around us, and I was just chuckling like no other.

We had good times and he made it until we put the game away in the fourth quarter. While I was carrying him on my shoulders the two miles to where we parked, he let me know that football games in person are not boring like when we watch them on TV. He said his favorite parts were the fireworks, the band, bean bag toss, and the wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man.

In-App purchases are torture for a four year old that loves to play Angry Birds. Eli really needs those 100 yoda birds, level ups, etc. I learned my password protection lesson early on when Beau managed to spend $150 on two in app items.

After one day of Pre-K, Eli is home sick with a stomach bug. He is getting in a little tablet playing time when he tried to pull a fast one on his mom:

Eli: Can you type in the password?

Charlene: Nope

Eli: How do you spell please?

He then attempted to log into my account with the passwords “please”, “goaway”, “Rio”, and “Iwillbeyourbestfriend”. I better update to a stronger password so he doesn’t brute force it!

We just got back from a crazy trip to San Antonio and Austin. We skipped Minnesota this year because the idea of a 2,000 mile round trip with a 5 month old just didn’t sound like fun times. Instead we opted for the 1,000 mile road trip to a much hotter destination. Our logic is sound!

The first couple days we sweated around the Riverwalk. We stayed at the Menger hotel which was pretty cool because it had a lot of history. For example, Roosevelt used to recruit rough riders in the bar in the lobby. It was also nice because it was within walking distance to everything we wanted to do downtown. The Alamo was right next door so we dragged the boys through there. It’s hard to explain to a 6 and 4 year old the war and slaughter that took place there. We talked about the Alamo before we went, and they were pretty sure a big fight was going to be going down when we got there. They were a little sad when they realized they were about 200 years late.

The highlight of downtown for me was the food (Shocking, I know). We had breakfast at Lulu’s which included this 3lb cinnamon roll. Charlene for size.

We also went to Schilo’s where we had some delicious Reubens, split pea soup, and home made root beer. I highly recommend those two places if you find yourself hungry in downtown SA.

After the Riverwalk we had two days at Sea World. The first day we did a lot of shows and checked out all the animals. We did as many rides as we could, but Eli was a tad short for the roller coasters. Beau was tall enough, but he wasn’t so sure about the rides. It took some serious convincing to get him on the big rides. He may take after his dad when it comes to the thrill seeking department. Eli loved all the rides, but as you can see we were not too excited about the waiting in line.

I think I must have ignored a lot of the cooler parts of Sea World during my previous visits when I was more concerned with riding the same two roller coasters over and over. The animal exhibits are pretty cool! We were sure to avoid the blackfish movie before our trip, so the shows and exhibits were pretty enjoyable.

Turns out you can’t just walk up and feed the dolphins anymore which was a tad disappointing since I had been talking up this part of the park. Eli lets me know his first day at Sea World was awesome except for the part where we didn’t get to feed the dolphins. Well good thing we’re going for two days! I was able to reserve our dolphin feeding for the next day, so the dolphin feeding promise was fulfilled.

Gingy and Granddad came with us to SA, and it was a lifesaver having them there to help with Mira! Never leave the house without awesome parents to help you out with your babies.

Day two was spent at Aquatica which is the water park in Sea World. The rides were great, and I only almost drowned Eli once. He spent some quality time trapped under our tube at the end of a slide, and then he was happy to tell Charlene and Beau when they got down “I drowned that time!”. That kid is hardcore though and he was ready to do every ride in the park.

Mira was really happy that we invested in a private cabana for our day at Aquatica. When you see the price tag for a cabana, you are going to think we’re crazy for pulling the trigger on that, but it was totally worth it. It gave Mira a shaded place with a fan to nap, eat, and then nap some more. It was right on the pool edge so the boys could play nonstop. They also brought you lunch and stocked a fridge with water. If I ever go to back with a tiny baby (slim to no chance), then I’ll definitely be going with the private cabana again.

After fun times in SA, we headed north to Austin to see my bro’s family and hangout with old friends. We had a cookout where I got to see a lot of old Austin friends. It was kind of mind blowing to see how old all the kids had gotten since we left Austin. This was our first trip back, so I think it had been four years since we had seen anybody.

We definitely missed our two weeks of cousin time in MN. It was hard to try and pack all that in to a couple days in Austin. Gracie was very excited about her new cousin Mira though. She would gladly play with Mira instead of those crazy boys.

The trip went better than expected and I’m pretty sure everybody had a great time. I was afraid Mira or the boys were going to get exhausted and the meltdowns would begin, but everybody pretty much held it together.

Mira seemed confused and I like to think she questioned her life every time she woke up in a new location. Once she got her bearings, she was all smiles as long as Mommy was there!